AO-40 experimental transponder operation started on
May 5, 2001 at approximately 08:00 UTC when the U-band
and L1-band uplinks were connected to the S-2 transmitter
passband downlink via the matrix switch. Some 58 DXCC countries were QRV via AO-40 in 2001.

Mike, KD9KC, reports very good conditions with AO-40 lately. Mike has a total of 153 grids and 40 states worked on AO-40.

Paul, VP9MU, told ANS that the number of telemetry capture submissions to the archive has fallen off severely over the last few
months. Paul suggests that if stations are capturing telemetry from AO-40, please send a copy of the data to the AO-40 archive
at ao40-archive@amsat.org.

ARISS is made up of delegates from major national amateur
radio organizations, including AMSAT.

Status: Operational.

The ISS packet station (normally) available for UI packets.
The mailbox and keyboard are currently disabled. Please see the packet section of the ARISS web page before
attempting to first work ISS on packet.

On Friday, February 1, 2002 some tough questions required thoughtful and detailed answers from astronaut Dan Bursch, KD5PNU. Bursch
represented the ISS Expedition-4 crew during an interview with seven high school physics students at Butte High School in Butte, Montana.

Upcoming student contacts are scheduled with Deep Creek Elementary School in Oregon; Quogue Union Free School and Vestal Senior High
School in New York; Kursk Technical University in Russia; Harrogate Ladies College in the United Kingdom and the Zeehan Primary School
in Australia.

Dave, WB6LLO, has operating information for both RS-15 and
RS-13 on his personal web site. In addition to satellite data,
antenna information for mode A operation is also featured.
The WB6LLO web site URL is http://home.san.rr.com/doguimont/uploads

DX continues to be heard and worked on AO-10. Malc, G7NFO, reports signals on AO-10 during this past week have been excellent,
as did Bob, W7LRD. Jerry, K5OE, also reports strong downlink signals and only moderate
QSB.

AO-27 uses a method called Timed Eclipse Power Regulation
(TEPR) to regulate the on-board batteries. In simple terms, TEPR
times how long the satellite has been in an eclipse (or in the
sun) and decides what subsystems to turn on or off. The AO-27
pages on the AMSAT-NA web site include an explanation of TEPR
AO-27 operations at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/n7hpr/ao27.html

Tak, JA2PKI, reported FO-20 control station operators believe
that the UVC (Under Voltage Controller) now is regulating the
transponder. The controller monitors battery voltage and tries to
protect the batteries from over discharge.

Launched August 17, 1996, by an H-2 launcher from the
Tanegashima Space Center in Japan
Operational.

The JARL FO-29 command station has announced the following
operation schedule of FO-29:

through March 2002

JA

Mineo, JE9PEL, has updated his FO-29 satellite telemetry
analysis program. The software will automatically analyze all
digital telemetry from the satellite such as current, voltage and
temperature. The JE9PEL FO-29/software update is available at http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/

Bob, WB4APR, reports PCSat operated its GPS system almost full time between January 7-21, 2002 (while it was in full Sun), allowing PCSat to
be the first satellite to report its own exact position directly to all users
for immediate display on their APRS maps.

Currently, PCSat is back into 35% eclipses.

As the first in what is hoped to be a constellation of future amateur radio satellites doing dumb digipeating to mobile users, PCSat
planned to use the digipeater alias of APRSAT and encourage its use on all such space
digipeaters. Since this mission can also be supported by the existing ISS digipeater as well, PCSat has
temporarily dropped the APRSAT alias and added NOCALL to its alias list (to be compatible with the
ISS) so that mobile users do not have to re-configure between ISS and PCSat passes.

PCSat is a 1200-baud APRS digipeater designed for use by stations using hand-held or mobile transceivers. Downlinks feed a central web
site http://pcsat.aprs.org. The APRS-equipped PCSat was built by
midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy under the guidance of Bob Bruninga, WB4APR.

During the period 15-December through 14-January good signals have been received from the 145 MHz beacon. The internal
temperatures have been fairly static with no particular trends observed. These temperatures are now 5.6 and 4.0 C for battery and telemetry
electronics respectively. The battery voltage observed during daylight passes is unchanged. The average value observed was 13.8 volts with
a range of 13.5 to 14.1 volts. The rate at which the SEU counter increments has continued to increase from 516 to 771 counts per day.
The spin period has drifted between 179 and 247 seconds. Attitude is controlled solely by the gravity boom gradient (as the Z-axis
magnetorquer counter has reached saturation (1024). Ground control action is awaited to reset the magnetorquer pulse counters.

Paul, KB2SHU, reports that he is receiving data from KO-25, however, Jim, AA7KC, reports that KO-25 has been non-operational
during recent passes over his QTH. Jim reports the downlink transmitter is very weak and intermittent. Both stations continue to
review KO-25 status. ANS thanks AA7KC and KB2SHU for their help with KO-25.

Uplink to be released
Downlink 437.075 MHz
Launched September 26, 2000 aboard a converted Soviet
ballistic missile from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
Status: Unknown, this satellite has been in orbit for almost
eight months. ANS has received no additional information.

When/if operational, SaudiSat-1A will operate as 9600-baud
digital store-and-forward systems as well analog FM repeater mode
capability. One of two new ham satellites from the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia built by the Space Research Institute at the King
Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.

Uplink to be released
Downlink 436.775 MHz
Launched September 26, 2000 aboard a converted Soviet ballistic
missile from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
Status: Unknown, this satellite has been in orbit for almost
eight months. ANS has received no additional information.

When/if operational, SaudiSat-1B will operate as 9600-baud
digital store-and-forward systems as well analog FM repeater mode
capability. One of two new ham satellites from the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia built by the Space Research Institute at the King
Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.

Launched February 23, 1999 by a Delta II rocket from
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
Status: Non-operational

The SunSat team released the following statement, dated
February 1, 2001:

We regret to announce that the last communication with SunSat
from our ground station at the Electronic Systems Laboratory at
Stellenbosch University took place recently. We are certain,
after having performed several tests since the last contact, that
an irreversible, physical failure has occurred on the satellite.
It is therefore unlikely that we will have any further contact
with SunSat, apart from the occasional visual sighting by
telescope!

When it was operational the SunSat package included 1200 and
9600 baud digital store-and-forward capability and a voice
'parrot' repeater system in addition to Mode B/J operation with
two VHF and two UHF transmit-receive systems.

Last reported, the satellite does transmit a 9600-baud burst every 30 seconds (the GO-32 beacon sends one short telemetry status
transmission of 44 bytes) and upon request the complete telemetry buffer.

The Naval Postgraduate School developed PanSat. At the time of
launch, PanSat spread-spectrum digital transponders were to be
available to amateur radio operators along with software to
utilize this technology.

The satellite is not currently available for uplink
transmissions and image and transponder recovery efforts have
been unsuccessful.

SEDSAT-1 signifies Students for the Exploration and
Development of Space (satellite number one).

SedSat-1 has downlinked months worth of telemetry data on the
performance of its electrical power system parameters. The Nickel
Metal Hydride batteries on the spacecraft were experimental and
experienced some abuse due to a power negative situation. This
information has provided NASA with useful information. With the
exception of the imaging system and the use of the transponders,
SedSat-1 has been judged a success.